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Friday, October 4, 2013

A Pain in the Neck—and the Back

Seriously, here’s yet another problem with being doped up on pain pills and muscle relaxants every night: apparently you don’t notice when the blog post doesn’t actually post when you hit the button. I suppose, in fairness, I’ve done that before, even without the drugs, but it usually hasn’t been almost twenty-four hours later before I noticed.

So, I’m thinking about making an appointment with a chiropractor.

I’ve been taking an assortment of pills for the past two weeks, but my back still hurts. Every day it feels a little better in the morning (after a night of being practically comatose from drugs), but every night, by the time it’s time to pop those pills and fall into bed, it’s hurting pretty badly again. I can’t imagine that’s normal.

So, I’ve been reading around looking for reasons, but that hasn’t been particularly helpful (if no one’s ever told you, the Internet is really not the place for those given to hypochondria; it’ll turn your headache into a brain tumor in a matter of seconds). But, one thing that keeps popping up, and something that some people I actually know concur with, is sciatica.

Well, let me say first that I sort of always thought that was just something that plagued old people from the old neighborhood. I mean, is there anything more stereotypical? But, as I keep realizing over and over again, I really am getting older every day.

At any rate, back to the chiropractor. With the symptoms I have, some sort of manipulation—stretching, exercise, chiropractic—seems to be one of the primary means of relief. So that’s what I’m considering. But I have to admit, chiropractors sort of get a bad rap. “Not real doctors”, “quacks”—I’m sure you’ve heard it. I’ve never been, so I can’t judge, and I know just about equal numbers of people on both sides of the argument. But, I have to wonder if the “real” doctors aren’t just about equally quackish, when they think it’s reasonable to ask someone to stay doped up just to be pain free. My meds say to take every 4-6 hours as needed for pain, even though it takes a good eight or nine hours for me to feel normal again after I take them. Though, in truth, if it weren’t for that pesky job and the inconvenient classes, I probably would take the meds all day long and just stay asleep. Constant medication would seem reasonable if I didn’t have to function. Or, if I was one of those people who is not quite so susceptible, and could function while on the medication, even if in a slightly impaired fashion. Yeah, that doesn’t strike me as a slam-dunk decision that the “real” doctors have all that much of an advantage. So maybe it really is time to try out a different sort of quack.

What about you? Have you had any experience with chiropractors? Good or bad?